GGRAsia – Kingston gaming revenue down 4 pct in fiscal year

Kingston gaming revenue down 4 pct in fiscal year

Jul 01, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Kingston Financial Group Ltd reported that gaming revenue from its two Macau casinos fell by 4.4 percent year-on-year in the fiscal year to March 31, 2015.

Casino revenue dropped to HKD660.2 million (US$85.2 million), from HKD690.9 million in the previous year, the company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

The firm controls two casino-hotels – Casa Real (pictured) on Macau peninsula and Grandview on Taipa – that offer gaming under the licence of SJM Holdings Ltd.

As at March 31, Kingston Financial controlled 58 mass-market tables and 13 tables in self-managed VIP rooms. Its casinos also had 224 slot machines and 136 “live baccarat machines” in the electronic gaming halls, the firm said.

The company said its gaming operation was affected “by China’s anti-corruption campaign, alongside with the slowdown of number of visitors”. In 2014, Macau’s gross gaming revenue registered its first annual fall since the liberalisation of the market in 2002, declining by 2.6 percent from 2013.

Aside from gaming and hospitality services in Macau, Kingston Financial is principally engaged in the provision of financial services, including securities brokerage, underwriting and share placements, and financing for margin trades and for initial public offerings (IPOs).

Kingston Financial is currently underwriting a rights issue in Hong Kong by mainland China real estate developer Landing International Development Ltd. The latter confirmed in a filing on Monday it plans to spend some of the money on a South Korea casino project.

Group wide, Kingston Financial reported net profit of HKD1.3 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, up 63.4 percent from a year earlier. Revenue for the period was HKD2.5 billion, an increase of 34.2 percent from the prior-year period.

“The significant increases were mainly due to the boost in income from securities brokerage, underwriting and placements, margin and IPO financing businesses,” the firm said. The board did not recommend the payment of final dividend for the year ended March 31, 2015.

Kingston Financial is led by Pollyanna Chu Yuet Wah, ranked at number 39 on Forbes’ Hong Kong’s 50 Richest People, with a net worth of US$1.6 billion in this year’s list.